Danny's Back V2
by Gater101
Summary: REPOST: Danny's back and he's having some fun with Jonas who in turn is having some fun playing Jack and Sam. Apologies for the wait.
1. Uninvited Guest

Spoilers: Well Daniel's gone and Jonas is on SG-1. So post Redemption Pt 2 and before Abyss.

Author's Note: Well, I have been looking over this story and I decided to reformat and re-post it. I hope it's as well received now as it was when I first posted. I am going to post this up until I reach the same point as in the original version, then I will delete the original. If you've read that, you'll notice that not much has changed. I hope you do enjoy.

**Part 1**

"There it is again!" Jonas cried for the fifth time since sitting in the commissary, his voice rising in pitch each time - and O'Neill was getting annoyed.

"There _what_ is again Jonas?" He asked for the fifth –and hopefully last - time.

"I feel as if I'm being watched," he muttered, as he looked around him a little worried. Everyone in the commissary appeared to be enjoying their meals and chatting with those around them. None of SG-1 could see anyone who may be watching Jonas.

"It's just your imagination," O'Neill replies for the fifth time, his voice strained. "Is it just me or do I sound like a broken record? Teal'c you sure we're not looping again?"

Teal'c merely raised his eyebrow in O'Neill's direction and continued to each his food. Beside him, Sam sniggered and let out a lone giggle.

"Major, what have I told you about giggling?"

"Sorry, sir," she murmured and ducked her head to hide her face. O'Neill simply shook his head.

"Well I have some reports to finish," Jonas announced after a few minutes of silence in which he cleared his plate. He picked up a folder and pushed his chair back, lifting his tray as he went.

"Briefing at 0800 Jonas. Don't be late!" Jack called after him.

"Yes, sir," he said distractedly.

Jonas walked down the corridor to his office with his head in a folder. He stepped into his office and froze when he heard a voice.

"Hello…Jonas," the person said from his seat. "I see they gave you my office." The person continued, looking around the room that once belonged to him.

Jonas' mouth opened and closed, and he looked behind him as if to run away. When he turned back to the person, his heart rate was going ten to the double.

"Dr Jackson!" He managed to say before he returned to acting like a fish. To say he was surprised was an understatement. Wasn't this man supposed to be _dead_? He closed his eyes and shook his head, hoping that when he opened them again, the mysterious person in front of him would be gone.

"Don't worry Jonas I'm not here to seek revenge. I'm not Jack." Daniel said with a small smile.

"Oh… of course not…?" Jonas sat down on one of the chairs in the room and stared at the not-so-dead Daniel Jackson.

"I just popped in to see how you're settling in." Daniel explained sweetly, his head bopping up and down. Jonas noticed his lack of glasses and frowned some more.

"Uh… it's been… Fine, thank you." Jonas looked at Daniel who had a knowing smile on his face. "Well Major Carter and Teal'c have accepted me."

"And Jack?" Daniel asked, although Jonas suspected he knew the answer already.

"Well Colonel O'Neill blames me for what happened to you. He doesn't trust me. He doesn't like me, that much is obvious," Jonas said a little dejectedly. He'd tried everything to get The Colonel to like him but nothing he did seemed to work. He just didn't understand.

"Well he wanted you on SG-1. He must trust you a little." Daniel encouraged.

"He only wanted me on the team because he didn't want a Russian," Jonas answered matter-of-factly.

"Jonas, you don't understand the way that Jack works. He wouldn't have asked for you to be put on SG-1 if he didn't trust you or think you were capable of helping defeat the Goa'uld. He wouldn't risk the team's life. Especially not Sam's." Daniel added.

"Excuse me?" Jonas asked confused.

"Oh come on! Don't tell me you haven't noticed!" Daniel exclaimed and thumped his hand down onto the table and let out a chortle of laughter.

"Noticed what?" Jonas asked, still confused. He was a very perceptive person and the idea that he had missed something was a little disconcerting for the young Kelownan.

"Sam and Jack!" Daniel exclaimed as though that explained everything.

"What about them?"

"We'll talk about that later." Daniel said after a dumb-founded look in Jonas' direction. "Now back to Jack. I know how you feel. He was like that with me. Wouldn't let me go on any dangerous missions, and when he did I had to stay behind and watch the gate or something."

"He did that with you as well?" Jonas asked surprised. He had always thought that Jack and Daniel had been so close for… well, forever, if he was honest. The idea that the Colonel had acted the same way with Daniel as he had with Jonas made the latter a little more heartened.

"Yes. If I had been military, it would have been fine. But because I was a scientist, he thought I couldn't handle myself. But he soon realized that I could and he trusted me more. It'll be the same with you. Trust me."

"Just like I trusted you back on Kelowna?" Daniel just stared at him. "Sorry Dr Jackson but I can't help but feel responsible for what happened. So does Colonel O'Neill."

"Colonel O'Neill what?" Daniel asked.

"He blames me for what happened." Jonas reiterated.

"No more than he blames himself," Daniel said sadly as he lowered his head slightly.

"What do you mean?" Jonas asked as he watched a myriad of emotion flit over Jackson's face.

"Well, I asked – no, _told_ – him to tell Jacob to stop. And he did. He blames himself for letting me go. That's why I'm here. I need your help to stop him blaming you and himself. Will you help me?"

"Of course, Dr Jackson. What do you need me to do?"

"Just convince him that it was my choice to go and he helped me. Tell him that no matter what happens I will always be with him. And tell him I miss him, too – as crazy as that seems. I am helping defeat the Goa'uld just in a different way from him." Daniel says with tears in his voice.

"Dr Jackson? Why do you want _me_ to do this? You could do it yourself."

"It'll also help him trust you more." Daniel looked at the clock on the wall. "And besides, my time for speaking with him will come." Jonas squinted at him, hoping he would elaborate but – like all Ascended beings – he simply smiled and remained stubbornly vague. After a while, Daniel looked at the wall and noticed the time. "You're late for your briefing."

"What? So it doesn't matter."

"Just promise me one thing."

"Anything," Jonas promised, eager to help.

"Look after them all for me. Especially Jack. He needs more help getting over this than the others," Daniel said as he gently faded away.

"I promise Dr Jackson." Jonas whispered and walked out.

Just before entering the briefing room, he heard Daniel say, "And get Jack and Sam together. It'll help him."

"Of course, Dr Jackson." Jonas said with a smile.

Jonas entered the briefing room and began his quest of helping Jack and Sam get together. He knew he couldn't tell them about his visit from Daniel, but he also knew that Daniel was there watching over them.

Jack looked up when Jonas entered the room. Behind Jonas was a tiny white glow. 'Daniel.' He thought. Then he heard Daniel say.

"Give him a chance, Jack. Please." Jack nodded and asked Jonas how he was.

'I miss you Daniel.' Three voices said inside their own heads.

"I miss you guys too." And then a gush of wind blew over them and they all smiled knowingly.

TBC

What'd you think? Did you like? Was it rubbish? Let me know. Another chapter? We'll see what you say.


	2. Step In The Right Direction

"Colonel? Colonel are you alright? Sir? Can you hear me? Sir? Can you hear me?" Jonas watched as Sam frantically tried to wake O'Neill up. He had been complaining about how quiet this planet was when there was a loud snapping noise and a branch came down and hit him on the head, knocking him clean out. Jonas couldn't help but roll his eyes at the irony.

"Major Carter? Would it not be best if we relocated?" Teal'c replied stoic as ever, as he looked skywards.

"Yes," Sam looked to the sky too and noticed it was already getting dark, with storm clouds gathering on the horizon. Intelligence reported that a storm was brewing in the atmosphere and Jonas wished they had listened to Jack and set up camp a few miles back. Instead, he and Sam had insisted they keep going and O'Neill had eventually given in. "Teal'c you carry him please." She motioned to the prone form of the Colonel and Teal'c moved to pick him up. Jonas watched as he grabbed his superior's thing and hauled him over his impressive shoulders. "Jonas, do you remember where that cave was?"

Jonas searched his memory for the image of the 'cave'. It was merely a small hole in the rocky outcrops of one of this planets many hills. It would be enough to give them shelter for the night.

"Uh-huh it's about a ten minute walk back this way." He jerked his thumb in a 'behind us' gesture and started moving.

"Okay, Teal'c can you carry him for that long?" Sam asked, concerned Teal'c would drop Jack and injure him further.

_Now that would really set the Colonel off_, Jonas mused as he stumbled over some thick weeds.

"He is not light but I will manage." Sam smiled at Teal'c's polite way of saying Jack was heavy.

"Good."

Five minutes after starting walking it began to rain and Teal'c was already too tired to run, so they had to continue slowly back to the cave. It seemed that, on this planet, when it rained, it poured. The terrain was already filled with huge puddles of water and they were soaked through to their skin. The mud under their feet was wet and thick, making their trek that much harder.

_Not once has Sam left O'Neill's side_, Jonas noticed. Ever since Dr Jackson's visit earlier in the month, Jonas had become acutely aware of the relationship between Sam and Jack. It was subtle and one wouldn't notice if they weren't carefully watching the two, Jonas thought, but when he broached the subject with one of the gossiping nurses in the Infirmary, he found out that Jack and Sam's relationship – or apparent lack-thereof – was in fact common knowledge.

Upon reaching the cave Sam rushed inside and laid the blankets out for Teal'c to place Jack. Once O'Neill was on the ground, Sam wrapped one of the blankets around him in a hope to keep him warm in the rapidly cooling cave. She took of her own jacket and the two others followed her lead. She reached into her pack to retrieve the fire sticks and turned to her friends.

"Teal'c, you rest. Jonas look around and try to find something to light a fire. I'm going to treat Ja- the Colonel's wound." With that, Sam leaned over the Colonel placing a hand on his head and tilting his chin to the ceiling.

Several hours later a fire was burning brightly, Teal'c was in Kel-no-reem, Jonas was reading one of Daniel's journals and Sam was dozing beside the still unconscious Jack.

It was quiet in the cave and despite the fire blazing in front of him, Jonas felt a chill run down his spine. He sighed and buried further down into the thick blankets.

"Hello…Jonas," a voice whispered from behind him in the darker part of the cave.

Jonas stood up and – with a quick glance to the slumbering team - walked towards the voice.

"Dr Jackson, what are you doing here?" Jonas spoke quietly so as not to draw the attention of the others.

"Just dropped by to see how our little plan is coming along."

Jonas shook his head in that way that he does. "It's not going well." He turned and looked at Sam and Jack who had somehow moved closer together since Jonas had moved. "Look at them. How can they not know?"

"I have no idea. I guess five years of trying to hide it finally paid off." Jonas turned to Daniel and gawked. Surely he'd misheard.

"_Five_ years!?" He whispered loudly.

"Ooooh yeah! Look I can't stick around for long. How's Jack?" Daniel asked watching his two friends.

"If he doesn't wake up soon I think Major Carter will crack up," Jonas murmured sadly as he watched his two team mates. Ever since his discovery, he had actually been able to feel the tension crackling between the two – and even in sleep, the tension hadn't diminished.

"Crack up?" Daniel echoed amusedly.

"Sorry," Jonas said sheepishly, grinning at the floor.

"Okay. Look I have to go. Take care of them and keep at it."

"Of course, Dr Jackson. Take care of yourself." He _smiled_ at Daniel.

"You too, Jonas, you too. And a word of advice: stop smiling so much. One day Jack is going to end up knocking your teeth out with his fist."

With that Daniel glowed and flew away.

Back in the main cave, Jack began to rouse. He groaned as the pain in his head reached a climax. He felt a strange weight on his chest and began to panic.

He looked down and frowned. Something was growing on him. He didn't have blond hair…growing out of his jacket, did he? Just when he thought that this planet couldn't get any better… The blond hair's hand moved up his chest and swiped at its face.

Jack sat not breathing for a few moments. Was he dreaming? Was Sam actually lying on him? Looking down again he answered affirmative.

"O'Neill, you are awake," Teal'c's deep voice echoed through the large cave and woke Sam up. For a few moments she didn't move but then she sat up straight and gasped.

"Sir, sorry sir. Oh my god…sir are you okay?" Her face was flushed with sleep and embarrassment and her eyes were wide.

"Waking up with you in my arms helped me somewhat I must admit," he grinned as his words registered in her head and she laughed nervously. Jonas almost choked on his own saliva – _what? _

"Yes, sir." She replied as she began rummaging through her bag, trying to dispel the awkwardness that began to rise between the two. In doing so, she missed the look of utter adoration that crossed O'Neill's face.

Suddenly from somewhere in the back of his mind, Jack remembered hearing Daniel's voice.

"Okay this may seem like a strange question but was Daniel here?" Jonas' head snapped up and Sam stopped raking her bag.

"Sir, are you sure you're okay?" Concern laced her voice and Jonas wished he could sink into the walls of the cave. He was a bad liar and if O'Neill asked him, he was sure that the older man would know. "What year is it?" Sam asked as she leaned over him again.

"10 October 2002 and we're currently on PB5 112, why? Are you okay?"

"You just asked if Daniel was here is all," Sam said while Jonas sat wide-eyed in the corner, his heart thudding in his chest.

"I could have sworn I heard his voice." He paused and looked at Jonas. "He was talking to you…about a plan that wasn't working. That's all I remember. _Jonas_… something you're not telling us?" O'Neill made it sound so innocent but the glint in his eye was anything but innocent.

"Colonel? No." Jonas replied calmly hoping O'Neill wouldn't hear the strange lilt in his tone.

O'Neill watched him for a few moments, while Jonas tried to keep his face impassive and his eyes confused.

"Must have been my imagination…" he murmured eventually and Jonas let out the breath he hadn't known he was holding. "Why does my head hurt so much?" Jack asked looking at Sam for the answer. Jack noticed – not for the first time since waking up – that she had a dopey grin on her face.

"Well, sir, you were hit on the tree with your head." Everyone raised their eyebrow at her.

"Do you not mean 'hit on the head by a tree' Carter?" Jack winced as he instantly raised his fingers to the wound.

"You know what I mean. Is it just your head that hurts? Anywhere else?" The fact that her hands were once again on his head didn't go amiss by anyone – not even Teal'c.

"No, nowhere else." Sam handed him two aspirin with that dopey grin on her face again. Jack swallowed the two pills without water and Sam winced.

"Better?" Sam asked as she helped him sit up.

"Not yet, no but your helping." She gave him a puzzled frown and he shook his head. "Don't matter."

"Major Carter, are you sure you should be moving him right now?" Sam shrugged her shoulders.

"Well he's fine. And we really need to get back to the SGC; we're already over due by two hours. Can you walk?"

"Um…yeah!" he gasped as he stood up and leaned on Sam.

"Lean on me. Teal'c you get the stuff. We'll go on ahead."

Jonas watched as Sam and Jack walked away from the cave. Jack leaned down and whispered something into Sam's ear and she leaned her head on his shoulder for a second. Jonas saw that the hand around his waist tightened and he slipped his arm comfortably across her shoulders.

_Seems our plan just took a step in the right direction_, Jonas thought and went to help Teal'c pack everything away.

"Seems that way."

Teal'c's head snapped up and he glanced curiously around the room.

"Daniel Jackson are you present?" Teal'c questioned the darkness.

"Teal'c are you feeling all right?" Jonas asked with mock concern.

"I am certain I heard Daniel Jackson's voice within this cave." With that said, he continued to neatly fold the blankets and place them in a bag.

Just before they left the cave Teal'c would have sworn he saw an image of Daniel Jackson telling him to take care of himself. Teal'c merely nodded and continued towards the Stargate with a slight smile on his face.


	3. Late Night Chat

"Carter," Jack whispered as she threw an arm over his chest whilst sleeping in the close quarters of the tents. Receiving no response from her, he moved a bit away from her. To his surprise, she followed him and pulled him tighter. This was more than a little odd.

He really didn't want her to wake up like this, didn't want the tense silence of the next day. He sighed and attempted to pull away. This time Carter, thankfully, didn't follow him. Pulling further away he landed on something too hard to be a pillow but too soft to be the ground. Something that felt distinctly human. Distinctly _Jonas_ feeling.

Ah, crap!

Too far. Jonas woke up groggily and peered at O'Neill. Jack felt a little sorry for disturbing the younger man's sleep but if _he_ was going to be sleepless, he didn't see why Jonas shouldn't be as well.

"I'm going to the toilet," Jonas muttered as he crawled over Jack to the zippy door to the tent.

Jack squished a little further closer to Carter trying to steal some warmth from her. It was futile. He sat up rolling his aching shoulders. Sleep would not come to him that night, he realised. Jonas, being the ever nuisance that he was, had forgotten to pack his own tent that he shared normally with Sam and now three of them were squished into the slightly-on-the-small-side two man tent. It was no good.

Oh…kay…

What was _that_?

Tilting his head to one side, he listened again, his back automatically straightening, while his hand slid to the side where his P-90 usually hung.

Was that… Daniel?

_Nah… It couldn't be.._. He paused and craned his neck in hopes of hearing something more.

Pulling himself up quickly he turned around to make sure that Carter hadn't woken up. Thankfully, she hadn't. Slowly he made his way outside and saw Teal'c sitting alone, silent, deep in Kel-no-reem, unaware alertness in his slight frown of concentration.

"T-" Jack began then frowned as the sounds of talking came from behind him at the _back_ of the tent. Swivelling around Jack silently cursed to all non-Goa'uld infested Gods for forgetting his gun.

"O'Neill," Teal'c spoke breaking his intense concentration. If he didn't know better he would have sworn that Daniel was there talking to Jonas?

"Yes Teal'c?" He asked with a distinct sigh.

"Should you not be asleep?" Jack nodded and turned heading back to the tent.

"Yep." He climbed into his sleeping bed and didn't bother to move when Sam flung her arm across him again. He simply pulled Jonas' sleeping back over the two of them and closed his eyes, hoping beyond hope that sleep would capture him quickly.

"Dr Jackson?" Jonas asked as he returned form the bushes after 'taking a leak'. He wasn't entirely certain what that term meant but was positive it was something to do with _using the facilities_.

"Jonas." Daniel nodded not bothering to correct his mistake in calling him Dr Jackson. He always did and probably always would.

"What can I help you with?" Daniel smiled knowingly as Jonas attempted to make conversation.

"How has our plan been doing?" Jonas nodded and walked towards the camp. Realising where he was going he turned and walked in the other direction towards the heavy cover of the trees. "I see Jack has been training you." Daniel smiled smugly as he followed Jonas.

"Actually your journals helped me. They were constantly telling me to take cover when Colonel O'Neill was in a mood or when we were on a mission with unfriendly natives." Daniel tried to hide a grin as he remembered the words from one of his first journals after being on SG-1 – he thought it was possibly from his journal on the land of light. That was also when Jack had taught him the meaning of the word summary – not that he hadn't known already.

"I pride myself on my useful skills of teaching," he said dryly stopping at a fallen tree that Jonas was sitting on.

Jonas smiled tightly at him and Daniel knew something was wrong.

"Dr Jackson, I think Colonel O'Neill has 'a new woman in his life'." Jonas sighed and Daniel frowned.

"What gave you that idea?" Daniel laughed as he thought of Jack going out with a woman other than Sam.

"He gets up early every morning and goes to the gym!" Jonas sighed exasperated. His head cocked to one side as he heard Colonel O'Neill talking with Teal'c.

"Jack does that every morning; he hasn't been doing it recently because of his injured knee!" Daniel tried hard not to laugh as Jonas and his surprised turned slowly to one of realisation.

"He…he does, doesn't he?" Jonas nodded answering his own question. Daniel smirked and shifted on his feet. "Oh!" Jonas shifted over on the log and patted it a few chips falling off.

Daniel smiled sadly. That was one of the things he missed about being 'human', he missed the luxury of effortlessly sitting down, of patting people on the back for a job well done. He missed his friends which was part of the reason why he was hanging around so much lately. Being ascended wasn't the same without his friends.

"I…can't sit." Jonas looked confused for a second then nodded enigmatically.

"Of course!" He shimmied back over and wrapped his arms around himself as a chill wind tore through the trees. "I think Sam has fallen further."

"Is that possible?" Daniel tried to joke but it failed miserably as Jonas nodded.

"Yes! Like tonight, before I came out _she was hugging him_! For crying out loud!" Daniel raised an eyebrow and Jonas shrugged shaking his head. "The thing that worries me is that Colonel O'Neill-"

"Still ordering you to call him that huh?" Daniel interrupted an empathetic look on his face.

"Yes. Anyway, Colonel O'Neill was trying to move away from her. It's frustrating to see him like that!" Jonas had stood up and was pacing his ever-present smile gone.

"Jonas, you have to understand: Jack thinks of his love for Sam as a weakness so he tries to hide behind the wall of 'I'm-such-a-serious-colonel-and-I-love-no-one.' But that's not who he is. I know that, Teal'c knows that and somewhere in her heart I'm sure Sam knows that too." Daniel paused, frowned and gave up trying to make sense of what he just said.

Oma Desalah has been working him again.

He sighed as he rubbed a hand over his face and stared at Jonas.

"What _we _have to try and do is break that defence down. I was almost there then this happened. I think that my ascending made him clam up again." Daniel sighed.

Had he, honestly, just say that?

"I better get some sleep Dr Jackson. You know how Colonel O'Neill gets with a sleepy team member." Jonas smiled tightly. "I'll talk to you another time."

Daniel nodded and walked alongside Jonas.

'Say something,' Daniel thought.

Nothing.

Something, _anything_?

Nothing.

"Night Jonas," he whispered as Jonas leant down to enter the tent.

"Well would you look at that?" Jonas whistled lowly.

Daniel leaned down to see what he was saying. What he saw made his heart jump and he felt thunderous applause in his head.

"Nice," Daniel whispered. "I have to go Jonas."

Jonas nodded and grinned that 'Jonas-can-only-smile-this-much' smile.

"See y'around." Jonas said as he climbed in and tried to retrieve his sleeping bag from a slumbering Jack O'Neill. He was asleep before he even managed to wrap himself in its comforting warmth.


	4. Hanging Around

Jack walked down the corridor towards Sam's lab an unusual smile on his face. He held two cups of cooling coffee in large burgundy cardboard cups with 'Costa's' emblazoned across it. He stopped there on his way into work after seeing it was open at his early hour of 5:30 am. He stopped in considering that Sam had probably been up all night working on some sort of technology from some sort of planet. Of course, if she'd spent the night with him he wouldn't be complaining. In fact, he'd be in heaven after seeing her nak…

Stop.

Right.

There brain. Go no further down that track.

Shaking his head Jack continued to walk towards her always cluttered lab. He swung around the corner and stopped. Smiled. No, _grinned_. Stepped forward. Bent down and whispered.

Louder.

Nothing.

Louder again.

Reaction. Her head turned away from the noise rousing her from sleep. Giving up and turning towards Jack, she smiled drowsily then put her face back down on the table.

Jack scoffed when he saw a red mark across her cheek. A mark that looked distinctly…spanner shaped.

Reaching down a curious hand Jack brushed his hand over the mark and Sam flinched away from the touch but he continued unable to stop his fingers exploring the newfound delicacy.

She turned into the touch and smiled slightly.

Jack yanked his hand away eyes large and mouth gaping. Closing his mouth, he placed the coffee down on the desk and reached a hand out to touch Sam's shoulder.

"Carter," he said and shook her slightly. No response.

For an instant, he thought she was ignoring him in the hope that he would go away but the slight furrow of her brow and flutter of her eyes told him she _was_ planning on waking up soon.

Well…good. It's not like he was worried by the prospect. Not that he was miffed that he couldn't watch her sleep any more. _I mean why should I be_?

"Sir?" She questioned as she pulled her head of its resting-place on her arm.

Reaching a hand out – this time with coffee in it – he handed it to her barely holding back a smile.

"What?" She asked looking into the coffee.

He pointed to his own cheek and grinned causing her to blush.

She reached up and touched her cheek then rubbed it. "Oh." She said still blushing from her neck up.

Jack grinned and sat down, noticed a shiny object on the table and picked it up.

"What's it do?" He asked twirling it around in his fingers, then still not satisfied he threw it up in the air and caught it. He was just about to throw it up again when fingers wrapped around his to stop it from happening.

"It doesn't do anything," she said and placed it on the table where it was before it was picked up.

"Then why can't I play with it?" Jack pouted reaching out to pick it up again.

"Because it doesn't do anything on its own." She pointed to something in the corner that looked distinctly like a microwave… to Jack at least. "But with that over there turned on it does do _something_," Sam said smugly looking into his eyes still with her fingers wrapped around his.

This got Jack's interest peaked. "What?" He asked a new edge to his voice as his eyebrow reached Teal'c-ish heights.

Sam sighed and leaned back in her chair staring into the space between Jack and the microwave. "I don't know." She raked a hand through her short hair sending it in all different directions.

"You don't know?" He asked gently wondering why she didn't know. It wasn't often that she _didn't know_ something, and when that happened, he got worried.

"There's something written on it. Jonas doesn't know what it says but says Daniel would have been able to translate it because he'd seen it in one of his journals. But Daniel isn't here and I don't know," she finished taking a sip of her cooling coffee.

A silence descended in the room and Jack shifted uncomfortably. Her words had been heavy, too heavy for the early hours. He wanted to reach out and touch Sam and comfort her but using his common sense he reached out and picked up Sam's overly expensive pen and began doodling on his hand.

"Sir?" Sam asked seeing his actions and smiling slightly, though a deep pain still lingered in her eyes.

"Sorry," he whispered and placed it down a sheepish smile on his lips.

He stood suddenly, breaking the surreal moment and surprising Sam but she managed to conceal it behind a frown. Jack looked down at her with a coy expression on his face.

"I have to go talk to the General," he said and turned to leave hesitating only to take one last look at the microwave in the corner and the still visible red mark on Sam's cheek.

_Is That Daniel Standing In The Corner_

Daniel smiled as he appeared in front of Jonas in his old office giving the poor man a heart attack.

"Jonas." Daniel grinned. "Just the person I want to see!"

Jonas looked around then into the cup he held in his hand – "Kelowna I come from" blazoned across it. Daniel could only wonder where he had gotten it from, or who had given it to him.

"What have I done?" He said uncertainly a deer-caught-in-the-headlights look on his face.

"Oh nothing out of the ordinary." Daniel smirked whilst Jonas wondered whether to be placated by that remark or insulted.

"Thank you…I – I think," he said, a confused frown appearing on his young features. Shaking his head in frustration Jonas looked up at Daniel. "What can I do for you?"

Daniel smiled and moved to sit down. Stopped.

Realisation dawned and he moved back to his original position.

"I was thinking," he began then frowned. He looked thoughtful for a moment in a way that only Daniel could and then shook his head and continued. "Our plan is taking longer than I had first anticipated. Now there is a planet I visited not too long ago, where the people _love_ match making. I was thinking I could give you the co-ordinates and you could go there," Daniel finished with a smile, obviously proud of himself.

"I don't see why people being fond of making matches helps us in our plan to get O'Neill and Sam together," Jonas replied with a frown, which seemed to have taken place over his usual smile.

Daniel pinched the bridge of his nose barely refraining from groaning loudly at Jonas' naivety – something that Teal'c seemed to have passed on.

Looking at the threadbare carpet of his old office Daniel sighed quietly and ran a hand through his mussed hair.

"Jonas, Jonas, Jonas! Match making is getting two people together not – _making matches_." Daniel suddenly wished he had a pen to twirl or a seat to plop into – somehow the ability to control everything didn't have the same ring as slouching in a seat.

"Then why didn't you just say so and save me a headache?" Jonas said and bent over. "This could come in useful. What are the co-ordinates?" He waited for a few seconds then handed Daniel a sheet of paper.

"I'll have to point them out. Bring them up on the screen." Daniel motioned to the screen behind Jonas.

Jonas turned and brought up a page full of 'Gate co-ordinates and waited for Daniel to point them out.

Five fun filled minutes later Jonas printed out the piece of information and moved to leave the room when he turned back to Daniel.

"Thank you Daniel," he said and left.

A cheery knock on General Hammond's door was answered a few minutes later and Jonas entered, froze then smiled.

"Colonel O'Neill," he acknowledged a slight edge to his voice.

"Jonas," he replied a full smile on his lips.

"What can I help you with Jonas?" Hammond asked retaking his seat at the authoritative side of the table.

"Oh yes! I have the co-ordinates to a planet I think it would be beneficial for SG-1 to visit." He rushed the words into one breath and breathed deeply at the end of it.

"Really? And where did you get these co-ordinates?" Jack asked a looking of mock interest on his face.

Jonas froze again.

Where?

Daniel?

Could he say that? He didn't think so.

"Um…I was looking through my journal's from when I was working with the Naquadriah and when I was allowed access to the tomb's found on the planet's and I found a few addresses. I checked them against the ones in the SGC's database and this is the only one inconsistent and doesn't have a match." Jonas blustered his way through the sentence and hoped furtively that he had made sense.

"Very well. We'll send a MALP through and check it out. Give the co-ordinates to Sergeant Harriman and have him dial the planet. Colonel go inform your team," Hammond stated.

The Colonel looked as though he wanted to strangle Jonas and hug him at the same time. Jonas smiled reassuringly and left to go give the co-ordinates to Harriman.

_Is That Daniel Standing In The Corner With A Mug Of Coffee_

Jack walked down the halls of the SGC towards his Major's lab with an unwitting smile on his face.

He'd just had a nice chat with Hammond.

Not about anything in particular. Just a chat.

Knocking quietly on the doorframe he entered and smiled at her. The mark on her cheek was gone but she still had the faint outline of it on her jaw line.

"We got ourselves a mission!" He announced and folded into a seat in front of Sam.

"Really?" She asked placing her pen on the table alongside a hand written report.

He nodded enigmatically.

"Oh yeah! Looks like Jonas has some addresses in one of his journals," he said raising his eyebrows in scepticism. "I think he is Daniel's way of getting back at us." He made a hand gesture between the two of them and Sam smiled.

"I get the feeling he's still hanging around somewhere." Sam sighed and stood up, reached a hand down to help Jack to his feet.

Jack accepted and allowed himself to be hauled up, ignoring his knees' loud protests. He simply refused to acknowledge that he was getting old.

"Oh yeah, still around…" He said after she had left the lab.

Picking up the keys to the lab he made to leave but stopped momentarily when he saw the microwave and shiny object from earlier. He smiled turned and smiled wider when he saw the empty Costa cup sitting on the top shelf of Sam's lab alongside the photo of him and Sam at Daniel's memorial.

He locked the door and made his way up to the control room with a small contemplative smile.

TBC


	5. Coupelia

Jonas lay awake and stared at the ceiling of the wooden hut the Coupelian's had provided SG-1 for the duration of their stay. His and Daniel Jackson's plans weren't exactly going as according to plan as they'd initially hoped. What Daniel had said had been true – the population on this planet did have a liking for trying to pair people off but what Daniel had gotten wrong was the fact that the Coupelian's liked to pair people off with members of their own community. Which is why Sam and O'Neill were, at that moment in time, paired off but _not_ with each other. Sam, he could hear, was paired off with some blond haired man who had taken an acute liking to Sam's resemblance to his mother – odd, but who was he t question a planet's mind – and O'Neill was paired up with a village elder. Jonas had tried not to snigger at Jack's face when he'd been told but apparently O'Neill was telepathic as he shot Jonas down before Jonas could even think of anything to say.

And then Jonas had been paired with… well, with Sumona. He didn't know how to describe her, except perhaps: _Sam Carter's double. _The village elder who was going to be running off with Jack had come up to him and told him that she knew of his frustrations over his feelings for Carter and that was why she had paired him up with someone who looked like her, so he could 'fulfil his dreams'. He'd guffawed and tried to tell her that she was mistaken but she had merely smirked and winked at him before walking away with O'Neill in tow.

He had tried to ward off Sumona's attempts and that had ended in tears – rivers and rivers and rivers of her tears and wails that had eventually summoned some other members of the village (but really, the land mass took over nearly all of this dratted hot, dry and _sandy _planet so how they could call it a 'village' he didn't know) to see what the commotion was. He had tried to explain that he didn't mean offence, but he just wasn't interested in… a play thing. That hadn't gone down to well either. So, now, after having been given a direct order from Colonel O'Neill to 'play along', he was lying next to Sumona on the bed.

He had thankfully managed to stop her trying to de-clothe him but she had insisted on talking. And not about the planet, or their way of life but about… _other things_ that he really, really didn't want to talk about. He'd discovered what she'd like to do with him and where and what she'd like him to do to her but… he couldn't get his mind off the fact that his and Daniel's plans were failing so miserably. He wondered how both of them felt at having been paired off with other people: were they thinking that the other had taken advantage of the situation… _Had _they taken advantage of the situation?

He didn't know. And he would like to find out.

Suddenly, he envied Daniel his omnipresence.

He turned to the side and tried to peer at Sumona through the dim light. It looked like she was asleep and he hoped that she was. He slid out from under her semi-clad body and snuck towards the wooden door of the shack. It creaked slightly as he pulled it open and he cringed, fearful that the young woman would wake up. She didn't and he sighed before slipping outside completely. The night was chilly, a wind blowing sand around in thin curtains. The 'street' he was on was deathly quiet and he felt a shiver run down his spine. He didn't like when things were eerily quiet. It unnerved him. He was sure that if someone else was with him, he'd be chatting away in a hushed voice so as to alleviate some of his tension.

He turned skywards and saw the clear vastness of space alight with millions of twinkling specks. Space never ceased to amaze him. He crept towards the hut that he knew Sam was in and slid the door open, grateful that it didn't creak like his own had. He saw a tuft of blond hair sticking out of the bed and saw the man that she had paired with asleep on a hard looking chair. He sighed in relief. He didn't bother checking on O'Neill, knowing that Carter was in her bed meant that the two weren't together. And, knowing his luck, Jonas would get caught my Jack and that was the last thing he wanted.

He crept back to his room and slid in, eyeing the chair and then the bed. He sighed resignedly before shedding his jacket and sliding under the covers on the bed. It wouldn't do to have a sore back the next morning.

--

Sam stared up at the sky watching the small flecks blink and flicker. Space never ceased to amaze her. This planet was amazing, with it's one large land mass and clear skies. The sand here didn't feel rough or coarse like on other sand planets, like Abydos and even the Colonel hadn't complained about it, much. She put her hands behind her head and stretched her neck back on the make shift pillow.

She couldn't understand why Jonas had thought that it would be a good idea for them to come to this planet – the people were primitive and their was no Naquadah or other vital resources (hell, not even _water_) that they could use.

She sat up as she heard someone move towards her from behind. She reached for her handgun and clicked the safety off but didn't turn around just yet.

"You can click it back on," the voice spoke to her and she smiled at the familiar warmth that enveloped her.

"Colonel, you scared me," she replied and clicked the safety on and laid the gun back down beside her.

He didn't say anything as he took a seat beside her. She turned when he shook a blanket out over his knees and held it open for her to slide in beside him.

"I thought I'd find you out here," he muttered as she huddled closer to his warmth.

She hadn't realised quite how cold it was until now. Silence followed for a few minutes as they both stared up into the sky above. She thought about Daniel, her dad, her brother… every one and every thing. She wondered what he was thinking about. Was he thinking his son? The mission? Daniel? She didn't know. She couldn't ask.

"What are you doing out here, sir?" She asked quietly, turning to look at him for the briefest of moments. The two moons were at different periods in their cycle and their light reflected off his face, twinkling in his dark eyes. She looked away.

"I couldn't sleep," he murmured and tilted his head towards hers, as though to rest it atop her blond mane but he didn't. "Besides, I knew you would be out here and I didn't want you out here on your own for too long."

She nodded, not bothering to ask how he knew she was here in this idyllic piece of paradise. The body of water seemed like a mirage, misplaced in the world around them. But it was there and it was as real as the two of them sitting beside it.

"Do you get the feeling that Jonas is… up to something?"

She turned to look up at him in question.

"How do you mean, sir?"

He looked back down at her and smiled before flopping back onto his back and tucking his arms behind his head, much like she had done only minutes before.

"Well… this mission, these people… I don't know… maybe I'm just too suspicious," he smiled cynically and Sam nodded in agreement.

"Maybe a little."

She didn't elaborate on which statement she was referring to because she honestly didn't know.

"I'm glad we're here though," he continued as his eyes roved the stars overhead. She turned to look at him but didn't utter that "Why" that was on her tongue. "This is beautiful."

She turned to look back out over the still body of water and nodded. They didn't say anything else as she lay down beside him. He didn't mutter a protest as she snuggled closer to his side and the sky didn't whisper to them as they fell asleep together at the edge of their small paradise.


	6. It Didn't Work!

Part 5 

The smile had not been removed from Jack's face since he had returned from that planet Jonas had wanted them to visit. It had seemed like an ordinary planet until the members started taking an interest in the two and pairing them off. The mission had been uneventful until the locals started talking about the powerful rocks and Carter had gone all science geek on him. He loved when she got excited about her work. He thought back to the night they spent out under the stars, of lying next to each other and how undeniably _right _it felt. He sighed. It wouldn't do to have these thoughts in Hammond's presence.

He was on his way to the de-brief when he caught sight of Jonas in his office shouting at what appeared to be an empty room. Curious about the sanity of the member of his team he walked in and stopped. He did an exaggerated double take and gawked.

Jonas was talking that was for sure but to _himself_.

No surprise there... except there wasn't actually anyone _else_ in the room.

Jack stepped into the room and leaned heavily against the doorjamb and listened to what Jonas was saying and laughed slightly at the frantic expression on the young man's features. He seemed to be shuffling books on his table then re-shuffling them, sometimes reaching his hand up to scrub through his rather short hair. O'Neill noticed that the young Kelownan had bulked up since he arrived on Earth.

"Dr Jackso… Colonel O'Neill!" He exclaimed when he saw the team leader watching him from the doorway.

The frown on Jonas' face deepened when he realized Jack was watching him talking to himself. He stepped back, smiled and shuffled the books on his table once more in an attempt to look busy.

"Jonas… were you just talking to yourself?" Jack asked casually trying not to sound worried about the newest member of his team.

Jonas looked up with a well-practiced look of innocence on his face that spoke volumes to Jack, who simply smirked.

"No…I was just…practicing singing!" Jonas answered smiling brightly in the hope that he could blind O'Neill out of his curiosity.

O'Neill tilted his chin slightly, raised two eyebrows, smiled slightly, nodded and left.

Jonas plopped into his chair and frowned into the cup he held in his hand, shaking his head. He knew he could have come up with some better excuse than _that._

"_Singing? _Jonas _please_! I can think of better excuses than that!" Daniel gawked at the man who was blushing profusely.

Jonas stood up suddenly and threw his mug down. It thumped. Banged. Clattered. And then smashed.

"Ah…crap! They only had one of those in the whole base!" Jonas complained as he watched his only 'Kelowna I come from' cup smash in the ridiculously small sink that had somehow emerged in his office since he went to Daniel's recommended planet.

"Jonas…I think that was the only mug like that on the entire _planet_," Daniel reminded him. Daniel shook his head and walked to the door and peaked his head out looking up and down the corridor for any sign of Jack. "I think we're clear," he muttered and wandered back into the room fully.

Jonas looked at him and smiled. His frown was still on his brow but there was also a smile on his features. Daniel would never understand the man's ability to smile, no matter the situation.

"So…this match making planet obviously didn't work…how can that be so?" Jonas asked as he flicked through the report from that mission.

Daniel looked longingly at the seat beside Jonas but resigned himself to the fact that he was going to have to stand.

"It didn't work the way we wanted it to, but it did work…" Daniel mumbled and looked at the ground.

Jonas frowned and brought his attention back to Daniel.

"What do you mean 'it did work'? Is there something that you want to share with me? I can't believe you didn't tell me! Our plan worked and you didn't tell me!" Jonas began pacing behind what used to be Daniel's desk whilst Daniel attempted to get a word in.

"I mean-"

"You know it would be nice to be included in our little universal plans!" Jonas raved until he finally heard Daniel trying – and failing – to speak. "Sorry," he mumbled apologetically and slumped back into the chair.

"It may not have 'got them together' but it did bring them closer. Where do you think Sam and Jack disappeared to half way through the night?" Seeing Jonas' look of 'oh-my-word-they-didn't-did-they?' he quickly corrected himself. "Don't worry, they didn't sleep together…okay they did but not in the way you think!"

Jonas was staring at him with wide disbelieving eyes that spoke more than any words.

"Jonas listen to me…they spent the night together _talking_ nothing else. And the nothing else is what we want to happen right?"

Jonas nodded still unable and unwilling to speak.

"So…all we have to do is give them a well placed shove." Daniel smiled slightly at the look on Jonas' face.

"We may have to get help from Teal'c…I don't think I am strong enough to push one of them and you're…well you're…you," Jonas stumbled over the last few words like a short-legged person attempting to do the hurdles.

It was at this point Daniel really wished that he were human; he would have banged his head off the table long ago. Either that, or banged his head forcefully off Jonas'.

"Jonas…that is so not what I meant. Come here," Daniel indicated for him to come closer to him and began outlining the plan he had in his head.


	7. A Game of Spies

He turned the corner and stalled. The image from his dreams was pointing straight up at him and all he could do was stare.

Sam Carter's backside was jiggling along to a beat on the headset she wore around her head as she worked on the new Naquadah reactor that was malfunctioning. The fact that she was wearing headphones was a definite advantage to him because it was obvious that she hadn't heard him come in and wouldn't hear him if he was silently watching.

"Are you going to stand there all day or are you going to say something?" She asked from under the table and he started, clearing his throat. It would do no good for him to get caught watching her.

Carter could be a little scary when she was pissed.

"How did you know I was here?" He asked as he moved further into the lab, trying to keep a safe distance between himself and Carter. He couldn't take his eyes off her for a few more seconds until she slid out from under the table and smiled at him.

"You don't think I know when you're standing at the door?" She asked him amusedly but seeing his questioning look, she elaborated. "Your smell-"

"I do _not _smell, I'll have you know Carter," he berated and leaned back against the table, a smug smile gracing his features.

"I didn't say you smelled, I said your smell... your aftershave smell."

He stared at her with an expression that said simply "yeah, right" for a few minutes before he smiled, catching her eyes. They stared for a few minutes until she cleared her throat and looked away.

"I think Jonas and Daniel are plotting something," Jack announced after several moments and stood up straighter, his eyes glued to the pen he had found on the table. How could they manage to turn every single moment into something more… something awkward?

Sam froze at the mention of her ascended best friend's name. "Daniel?" She questioned with a slightly worried expression on her face. He liked that look. He liked that she worried about him.

Jack nodded and slapped his open palm onto the desk.

"I knew he was still around! I overheard Jonas in his office today... I thought he was talking to himself so I stopped outside the door. I was about to make myself known when he said the beginning of Daniel's name," he said and sipped a cup of cold coffee that he spotted amongst the mass of papers and reports. "They're up to something," he finished as and sighed as he finished the cup.

"Uh... sir that cup has been there since ...a long time ago. I don't think you should have drunk it." She grimaced along with him but it turned into a grin when he started pawing at his mouth in an attempt to get the day-old coffee out of his system.

"Thanks for telling me!" He moaned and thumped his head on the desk. Sam rolled her eyes and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry, sir, I'm sure we can find plenty of other ways for you to get your mind off the matter at hand."

Jack tried not to let his eyes bulge but when her hand slid down his arm, he could do nothing but follow it with his eyes.

Oh, the thingsshe _did_ to him…

Unbeknownst to them, of course, Daniel Jackson was observing the little 'bonding' time with a huge ass smile on his face.


	8. Complications

"We are _finally_ getting somewhere!" Daniel announced and mentally clapped his hands as he appeared in front of Jonas in the shower room.

"Daniel!" Jonas shouted and pulled his trousers up from where they fell at his knees when he heard Daniel's voice.

He continued getting dressed while Daniel stood with his huge ass grin still plastered on his face. His life had just gotten_ so_ exciting. Not only were his friends positive that he was still around but they were finally getting something done with all the sexual tension that made the air around them crackle. He had every reason to be happy.

But he wasn't. Not completely. He wanted – no he _needed _– more than a few hand gestures and stares to happen before he could leave it be.

"We only have a short distance to go on our journey for Sam and Jack to get together." Daniel said and practically bounded up and down on the spot. Daniel tried to tell himself that he wasn't acting like a teenaged girl but he simply knew that he was lying to himself.

Jonas looked at him blankly. Only a short distance... on _what_ journey?

"I was not aware that we were on any journey, Daniel," Jonas said still looking confused by Daniel's choice of words.

Daniel dropped his hands that were clasped in front of his face and the smile froze. Mumbling words in many different languages that Jonas just did _not_ want to translate. Daniel closed his eyes and stepped forward, while taking a deep calming breath. Was it possible for someone to be _this _naïve?

"Jonas, you are so lucky I can't touch things because I would have clouted you long ago. I don't know how Jack has managed to survive this long." Seeming to remember that Jonas was sitting in front of him - though now wearing a hurt expression - Daniel smiled and continued to explain what he had seen.

"I was being my omni-present self when I overheard - and I guess oversaw - Sam and Jack in Sam's lab. They looked pretty close! Jonas we have almost succeeded." Daniel shrieked and pumped his hand in the air.

He had to admit that he could be blowing this out of proportion just a tiny little bit but life as an ascended being wasn't all that it was cracked up to be. There were so many _rules _he had to follow and he just didn't see the point in having all of this power and not being able to use it.

It was frustrating.

"If they are already close, then why do we have to continue?" Jonas mumbled into his shirt evidently in a bad mood. Daniel frowned but dismissed Jonas' lack of smile.

"Because they are both too stubborn to forget the regs... Jonas what's wrong?" Daniel asked seeing Jonas' face fall even more.

Jonas' lack of vocabulary and smile were worrying Daniel. Long seconds dragged and Daniel was about to speak when Jonas beat him to it.

"I like Sam..." Jonas mumbled and looked at Daniel with a resigned look on his face.

This just got more complicated.


	9. Sort Me Out

**Sort me out**

_Is That Daniel Standing Over There In The Corner_

Daniel barely managed to refrain from crumpling to the floor like a paper house in the wind as Jonas' words sunk into his head.

He ran a hand wearily through his hair and looked at Jonas open-mouthed. "Jonas… you don't. You _know_ you don't. It's just a feeling you have. And besides you don't want to like Sam! Every guy that has ever liked her has died Jonas, you don't want to _die_ do you? Of course you don't, so get this little idea out of your head!" Daniel ranted from his place of hovering in front of Jonas.

Jonas looked at him pleadingly, putting on his puppy dog eyes.

"Daniel… please! I know Major Carter's track record! I know that… It's all just coincidence!" Jonas added the last part on trying to convince both Daniel and himself. "I like her I don't know why, well I do know why. She's beautiful, smart, funny-"

"Jonas, stop!" Daniel waved a hand in front of his face in order to stall Jonas' list of all the things he found amazing about Sam Carter; the woman they were trying to set up with someone. "Don't. Do. This."

Jonas slumped further down on the bench until he almost slipped off onto the floor. His pained expression almost broke Daniel's resolve and he closed his eyes so he couldn't see the younger man's face.

"I'm sorry Dr Jackson, I can't help you with your plan," Jonas mumbled quietly and dropped his head onto his chest.

"What plan?" O'Neill asked from the doorway. "Jonas? How many times have I told you that it isn't safe to talk to yourself, especially on this base." O'Neill tried to smile but the look on Jonas' face put a stop to that. "Hey, what's up?" He asked and, without thinking, sat down on the bench above the depressed young man.

"Nothing that concerns you." Jonas said and Daniel, who was being his ever-present self, was surprised with the arrogance of Jonas' words.

O'Neill, slightly miffed at Jonas' words, stood abruptly and made towards the door.

"Just remember we have a mission briefing in an hour, don't be late." He left without another word or glance over his shoulder and made straight for Carter's lab – or so Daniel presumed.

After a few moments to make sure the corridor was clear Daniel re-emerged in front of Jonas and kneeled down in front of him.

"Think about this Jonas. You – the newcomer – are discovering feelings for Sam - a very beautiful woman, yes – but do you really think that these feelings are real? Think about it. You work closely with her everyday, and she is the only woman around here who is single – except Janet of course. Added to that is Sam's feelings for Jack, and vice versa. Now do you think that Jack would be happy if you suddenly jumped in and started stealing his woman?" Daniel reasoned with Jonas who had moved again to stand before his locker and then proceeded to bang his head against it lightly.

"I know, I know… okay…" Jonas whispered to the door. "I'm ready, I'm ready. So… where do we go from here?"

Daniel didn't truly believe that Jonas could switch off his feelings at the flick of a switch but at least he was willing to try. Daniel sighed and looked apologetically at the young Kelownan's back. It really wasn't a fair position to be in, but Daniel knew that Jonas didn't really have feelings for Sam. None that she would return anyway. It was better for all concerned if Jonas just waded on past.

Jonas turned to him questioningly at his continued silence and Daniel smiled before clasping his hands again.

"Okay, so…"


	10. Help Me Out

Help me out 

_Tell Daniel His Coffee Is Ready_

Jonas sat in the seat across from Sam in the briefing that Colonel O'Neill had reminded him about. His eyes kept drifting into the corner where Daniel had told him he would be standing. He smiled slightly at Sam as she frowned in his direction.

"You okay Jonas?" She asked and reached a hand out to cover his, in a friendly gesture.

Jonas' breath caught in his throat and Daniel, who had been standing in the opposite corner from the one Jonas had smiled at, let out a groan as he mentally slapped his forehead.

Jonas cleared his throat and looked to where he believed Daniel was before quickly looking away. He looked at Sam and smiled.

"I'm fine, just a little disoriented for a while there," he said and quickly admonished himself, knowing that his words would no doubt lead her to believe he was unwell.

"I don't think you want to be asking what's up with Jonas, Carter," O'Neill announced as he entered the room, late as ever.

Sam looked to him a confused frown on her forehead but she questioned him no further and removed her hand when she noticed Jack glaring at it.

The group fell into an uncomfortable silence that lasted until General Hammond came into the room and began the mission briefing.

Soon after the mission briefing Sam was waiting outside the locker room for the male members of her team to come out when she could feel as slight breeze emanate through the corridor.

"Hey Daniel," she whispered and looked up when the locker room door opened. "About time as well! What took you so long, fixing your hair Colonel?"

Jack looked at her and smiled, before reaching out and touching her hair.

"Takes me less time to fix yours," he whispered with a grin on his face.

Jonas frowned and looked around, wondering if Daniel was seeing the same thing he was. Was Colonel O'Neill actually touching Sam's hair and _grinning_? It seemed so surreal.

Sam simply smiled at him before sliding – yes _sliding_ - past him and into the locker room.

Jonas walked away from the other males as they stood waiting for Major Carter to leave the locker room and into a storage closet in the next corridor.

"Jonas, Jonas my friend! Did you see the way that she slid past him? Did you _see_ it?" Daniel practically shouted and Jonas laughed out loud at the ascended man.

"How could I possibly miss it?" He said with humour in his voice. "I think, Doctor Jackson, that we are not needed any longer."

Daniel stopped laughing abruptly and stared at Jonas, his eyes wide and mouth hanging open.

"Jonas… you're wrong. They need all the help they can get. They're at that stage where they look so close… but will never actually cross that line that we want them to cross!"

Jonas frowned and tried not to show it. He failed miserably.

"I thought we wanted them to engage in… leisure activities… not cross a line?" He said, feeling more than a little stupid.

Daniel looked exasperated and stamped his foot on the hard floor making no sound. He closed his eyes and when he opened them again, Jonas wondered how they didn't pop right out from their sockets.

"Dammit Jonas… it's a metaphor, a figure of speech! Now… oh god… help me out here someone…" Daniel looked pleadingly around the empty space and Jonas had never seen him like this before.

"I'm sorry Daniel, I just… don't understand these… metaphors that you and Colonel O'Neill speak so highly about…"

From outside in the corridor, a loud voice was booming down the corridor.

"Jonas! Jonas, where the hell are you? We don't have time for this!" It was Colonel O'Neill.

Jonas looked to where Daniel had been standing but found only empty air.

"Dammit," he muttered as he stepped out of the closet and walked face first into Teal'c. "Sorry Teal'c," he fumbled.

"Jonas Quinn are you well?" Teal'c asked stoic as ever.

"Yes Teal'c, I'm fine thank you," he replied and smiled about to walk away. Then he stopped. "Actually Teal'c… maybe you could help me out," he grinned and put his arm halfway across the bigger man's back and began walking away.

He was not going to do this alone any longer.


	11. Teal'cterpritations

Don't be messing with the big man 

_Daniel I Can Hear You Laughing You're Not Very Subtle_

Teal'c sat on a boulder and watched O'Neill watch Carter watch the readings on her mechanical device that O'Neill so happily named doohickey number six hundred and forty five. Even Teal'c had not kept such a track of the mechanical devices that MajorCarter owned, but he decided O'Neill's knowledge was due to the ever-increasing amount of time he spent in Major Carter's lab.

Jonas had approached Teal'c after exiting a storage closet where he appeared to be, once again, talking to himself. The larger man was beginning to grow concerned with the new alien member of SG-1's actions. Until he had informed him of the reasons of his ever-increasing strange activities. And Teal'c had decided to embark on helping Jonas Quinn in his quest to unite Major Carter and Colonel O'Neill. Teal'c had missed his match making sessions he had shared with Daniel Jackson and Janet Fraiser, late at night in the infirmary or in one of the friend's house. Since Daniel Jackson had left, Teal'c had not had the time nor patience to attempt his match making again.

But Jonas had approached him and he knew that this was his chance to grant his friend's life long wishes.

He smiled to himself and stood up from his seated place on his not-so-comfortable rock drawing O'Neill's attention.

"Hey Teal'c, 'sup?" O'Neill called over the short distance from the tree he was perched against.

"My legs require stretching O'Neill, and my body requires to be leaked," Teal'c said with no trace of humour in his voice and he began walking away.

"Hey T-man wait up! I'll come with ya," O'Neill called and attempted to stand up.

"That will not be necessary O'Neill," he called over his shoulder, not slowing his pace.

"It's not necessary, but I want to," O'Neill persisted and Teal'c stopped, turned to him and raised his eyebrow in a very, _very_ menacing manner.

"I believe O'Neill, you do not know the meaning of subtlety. I wish you and Major Carter to be left alone to enjoy each others company while I go in search of Jonas Quinn." With that, he turned and walked away, leaving a very embarrassed Jack O'Neill.

"Well… that was something else," Jack groaned as he slumped back down into his seat he had created.

Sam looked up and smiled.

"Did I miss something, Sir?" She asked innocently and Jack simply stared at her.

He stood up once more and moved towards her and lay down on the grass beside her.

"Not at all, Carter. Not at all," he said as he pulled her arm from under her and she fell down beside him laughing loudly.

_Is That Daniel Standing In The Corner_

"Jonas Quinn!" Teal'c called aloud as he wandered in the general direction that the younger man had wandered off in.

He happened across him some five minutes later, perched against a fallen log, seemingly talking to himself again. But as he approached, he began to see an evanescent glimmer of a form that could very well have been the ascended form of Daniel Jackson.

Teal'c grinned to himself and kept walking towards the pair.

"Daniel Jackson," he announced as he drew closer and could see the figure clearly.

The now almost solid looking figure swung towards him and Teal'c could see the maniacal grin that the young man often wore when he had created a new plan to see O'Neill and Carter together.

"Teal'c! Jonas was just telling me that he had let you in on our little… extra-curricular activities. Isn't this great? Just like old times!" The doctor seemed overly hyperactive and Teal'c could only smile.

"It has, indeed, been a very long time Daniel Jackson," the big man said and inclined his head in a friendly gesture.

Jonas looked on at the friendly banter between the long-term friends with nothing short of amusement.

"Where are Major Carter and the Colonel?" Jonas piped up and pushed off his stump of wood.

Teal'c had something that resembled a smirk on his face and Daniel could barely retain his laughter.

"I left Major Carter and Colonel O'Neill alone at the base camp. I made it very clear I did not wish O'Neill's company and that O'Neill must stay in the presence of Major Carter," Teal'c informed them.

There was a pause before Daniel could no longer hold his laughter and howled until the tears were pouring from his eyes.

After a few moments of hysterics and Daniel trying to recover and Jonas wiping some stray tears from his own eyes, Daniel motioned the other two towards him.

"I have a plan for when you get back to Earth…"


	12. Discovery

"I heard about Colonel O'Neill."

Major Samantha Carter frowned momentarily at the young Kelownan's words but continued working on the new doohickey from P3X 9JQ. It was quite fascinating actually: the three symbols on the three triangular sides glowed from time to time, emitting a low energy field; the components on the inside buzzed and whined in correspondence with the glowing lights –

"You seem to be handling it better than I thought you would."

Sam frowned again.

"Handling what?"

The heat energy the device was emitting fluctuated by two percent every two minutes; the symbol on the side facing away from her was the same form –

"Colonel O'Neill's date at the weekend."

- as the symbol for Ea… _what_?

"What?" Her hand suddenly stilled, clutching tightly onto the spectrometer, hovering over the blinking device.

She rolled her eyes towards Jonas' face and saw his expression: a mixture of shock, fear and… something else she couldn't quite place. His eyes fluttered around the room, resting anywhere but on Sam's face. She had butterflies in her stomach – rapidly turning into dead weights.

"I thought you knew… I mean, the whole base knows. I mean… I thought you knew…" The bumbling alien rambled until he felt Sam's iron vice on his arm.

"Jonas. Thought I knew what?" Her voice was steady, pronouncing each word each word perfectly, whilst simultaneously increasing the pressure in her fingers. She had to have heard him wrong.

The boy looked around like a school kid being scolded for sneaking a peek in the girls' locker room – or eating someone else's banana, the latter being the more likely crime.

"Colonel O'Neill went on a date. Off base. Amy to… O'Malley's Saturday night. Off base."

Being Monday, Sam hadn't had the chance to see O'Neill as he was in his bi-weekly meeting with General Hammond.

Jonas was beginning to look pained and glanced frequently down at his arm clamped between Sam's jaws. Okay, her fingers but it sure as hell felt like the jaws of a rabid dog.

Sam, meanwhile, was gawping and increasing the pressure on his arm as the boulders in her stomach bounced about. Her feet felt like dead weights with all of the blood from the rest of her body pooling there.

"Sam… I really want to be able to keep writing…"

Frowning – again – Sam looked at him, somehow hearing his voice over the increasing beat of her heart loud in her ears. She could feel the blood pounding in her veins. She wanted to be sick.

"What?"

"My arm…" He looked dramatically at his arm, managing to throw a head curve in to emphasise where he meant.

"Sorry." She released her grip and Jonas pulled his arm away quickly before she could change her mind and rubbed frantically in hopes of eradicating the forming bruise.

Sam picked up the spectrometer again and held it shakily over the device again. The heat energy had risen by two percent, the whirring had died down and the lights were dimming. What caused the sudden changes? Maybe the batteries were dead. Maybe it didn't work outside of its own atmosphere, after all P3X 9JQ had two suns and umpteen moons. Maybe-

"Why the hell didn't I know?"

Sam slammed her spectrometer onto the work surface – no doubt breaking the fragile connections within it – and swiveled towards Jonas, looking desperately for the answer in the young man's face.

"I don't know Sam; you'd have to ask him."

Sam looked directly into Jonas' eyes and she nodded. She kept nodding and biting her lip until she eventually shook her head, uncountable minutes later.

"I have work to do, Jonas."

Jonas smiled at the look on her face but Sam missed it. If she had seen it, she would not have hesitated to smack the grin right back off again. She picked up the device that she had slammed down and began moving it across the device on her desk. Jonas could tell from one cursory glance at the reader that it wasn't working. He wasn't going to say anything.

Maybe they had taken this whole match-making thing too far.


	13. Distractions

A/N: Sorry that it took so long for me to post this part. It's been sitting waiting for weeks but I have just been so busy. It's exam time once again and I had a lot of coursework to do, which is all handed in and now I only have two exams. Hope you enjoy.

_-danny's- -back-_

Samantha Carter had no idea what to do. She wandered the halls of the SGC, stumbling past numerous members of staff who would quiet as she passed, passing looks of sympathy.

Didn't these people understand that she was _fine_? Her and the Colonel were the furthest things from being… a _couple _as there ever could be. Sure, they loved each other – well that was certainly the case on her part -, and sure they shared 'moments', moments that had become more and more frequent of late. That absolutely did _not _mean that they had anything remotely romantic going on.

He was, after all, just the love of her life.

It wasn't like he was a part of her, ripped out from the inside. It really didn't hurt that much, when she really thought about. Because, really, what could really have happened other than a few flirtations with something more?

She wandered the halls, head down and wondered, not for the first time, why the thought of him with someone else made her feel like she was being ripped in two.

_Meanwhile… _

"How was her appearance?"

Seated in Jack O'Neill's office watching the man attempt to locate a post-it, Teal'c felt no qualms about asking the Colonel such questions.

"She was great. Brown hair, shoulder length, kinda flicky with a…" he trailed off into a grunt as he attempted to yank a folder from under a mountain of cardboard manilas having given up on the post-it. "Emm…brown eyes, really big. Tall, she was tall. Jeans, black and a red top – kinda revealing but I wasn't about to say anything – sound like her father, y'know?" His words were jumbled and unorganised as he attempted to read notes, write a report and recall how Amy looked on Saturday night.

"I do not understand O'Neill. Why would you not wish to tell her to cover herself, are you not her father's brother?" Teal'c frowned and inclined his head slightly as he watched O'Neill misspell 'Carter' 'Crater'.

"I am, yes." Sounding distracted.

"Then should you not be looking after her well-being?"

A pause then,

"Uh huh."

Another pause while Teal'c waited for him to elaborate. When he was about to speak, O'Neill spoke again.

"Which is exactly why I am keeping her the hell away from Jonas."

Teal'c opened his mouth and was about to ask the obvious when O'Neill looked up and saw the question on the big man's face.

Looking down again and jotting a few more words, he replied distractedly:

"Well, Amy is a very attractive young woman if I may say so myself."

"I can't _believe_ you didn't tell me."

Jack's head whipped up, almost causing whiplash, definitely not distracted anymore. Teal'c turned and saw Major Carter filling the doorway, the face of Jonas Quinn grinning maniacally over her shoulder.

"I will depart now O'Neill."

The sizable man stood and held the door open for Sam to enter and then closed it firmly behind him.


	14. When The Wait Is Over

"Well?!" They heard him before they saw him.

Jonas and Teal'c shared an amused look at the ascended man's over-  
exuberance before nodding.

"She so totally fell for it." Daniel raised an eyebrow at the alien's colloquialism but did not dare to interrupt in case he went off on a tangent about how he came to understand this new phrase. "Though I may have one hell of a bruise," he whined and rubbed his arm under his green shirt (he'd phoned Teal'c that morning to ask what color to wear – after figuring out how to work the thing, of course). His eyes suddenly widened. "What if it's broken?"

Daniel and Teal'c looked exasperatedly at one another, Teal'c's eyes widening slightly, Daniel's eyes rolling into his skull.

"Jonas, I don't think it's broken." Daniel informed him gently – if not somewhat patronisingly.

There was silence for a few minutes and Jonas rocked backwards and forwards on his heels, blowing air through his lips.

"I just remembered!" Jonas slapped a hand to his head. "I have a report I need to write up for General Hammond!" He began walking away down the corridor in the opposite direction of his office.

Daniel looked at Teal'c, who reached out and grabbed onto Jonas' shoulder, effectively stopping the man from walking any further.

"Wouldn't want to add a broken shoulder to your list now would you" Daniel teased. Jonas shook his head. "That's what I thought." Silence followed. "So Jonas, does Lieutenant Rush still work in the infirmary?" Jonas frowned, trying to look innocent and confused. "You know the pretty one. The one you asked out on a date with you last night?" Daniel continued and laughed when the younger man's eyes widened almost to the point of them leaving their sockets.

"How did you kno… Never mind… And yes, she does," Jonas answered huffily, his secret being spoiled.

Silence again ensued in the corner, and Jonas and Teal'c were greeted with curious glances from anyone who saw them standing in the middle of the corridor, doing nothing, saying nothing, looking at the door to Colonel O'Neill's office.

"What do you think they're doing?" Jonas asked eventually and Daniel sent him The Look, saying _don't even go there_. Obviously, choosing not see The Look, Jonas continued. "Maybe she's already killed him?"

Teal'c raised his head slightly, the only indication that he was becoming irritated by the team's new state-the-obvious member.

"We shall have to endure the long wait," he replied stoically.

Suddenly, Daniel's face lit up as he was struck by an idea.

"What the hell am I doing waiting?"

Before either Teal'c or Jonas could say anything, Daniel had vanished, leaving the two alien men to look at one another once more.

"Well… we'll just wait here," Jonas sighed. Teal'c turned to him as the younger man started patting at his chest. "Now where did I put that banana…?"


	15. Conversations

"Can't believe I didn't tell you _what _Carter?" O'Neill asks after Teal'c has closed the door.

Sam shakes her head and stares at the Colonel, a look of sheer incredulity on her face. She looks exaggeratedly around the room and then lands her steely vision on his face. She raises and eyebrow and purses her lips. She doesn't know what to say.

"Let's start with your knee operation that's going to put you out of service for at least two months!" Jack's lips form an 'o' shape. He leans back in his chair and drops his pen onto the fat manila folder in front of him. "I mean, how can you just… not tell me something like that! Do Teal'c and Jonas know? We deserve to know things like this, we're your team!"

Jack sat back dumbfounded. In all honesty, he was going to tell them. He just didn't know _when_. He hadn't thought she would find out because there was only him and two other people who knew about the operation and he was pretty sure that neither Hammond nor Frasier would mention anything about it. And if that was the case, how the hell did she manage to find out about it?

"Carter…" He began but she cut him off.

"No! Don't _Carter _me. We deserve to know. Who is going to be leading the team while you're gone? Are they bringing someone in from outside the base? How long are you exactly going to be out for? God…" She trailed off and he watched as she raised a frustrated hand to her eyebrow and massaged her forehead. He felt bad, seeing the state she was in. "I'm sorry, Sir."

He looked at her for a few moments after her apology.

"What're you sorry for?"

She stared at him in confusion having not heard the reprimand that she had expected.

"Well…" she looked around as she felt not one but two sets of eyes watching her. She shook her head and concentrated once again on the Colonel. "It's none of my business whether you tell us about your personal life or not."

Jack frowned at that. His going for an operation wasn't what could be classed as a 'personal life' and it _was _her business because it affected the team. He shook his head and motioned to the seat across from him.

They sat in an awkward silence for a few minutes alternately staring at each other and the many – _many – _files on Jack's desk.

"I'm sor-" "I sho-"

They both laughed nervously and Jack cleared his throat as his eyes darted to the corner of the room, where he was sure he heard a little squeal. He shook his head, wondering if his hearing was going too.

"You go first, Carter."

She looked up at him and smiled and he returned it, his hand twitching nervously.

"I…" she looked away from him towards the wall before standing up and moving around the room. "I'm sorry for just…" Jack watched as she moved around the room, his head getting dizzy from watching her move to and fro. He stood up too and moved around his desk to lean against it. "I… I can't believe I just came in here and started shouting at you!" Jack frowned. He didn't recall any real shouting but she looked entirely too nervous and distraught that he thought better of correcting her. "I… I mean, what did I expect? I…" she stopped moving and looked sullenly at her hands that were ringing together.

Jack watched her and felt his own anxiety increase. Carter _never _got into these states unless the world was ending. He started, worried. Perhaps he'd somehow managed to miss that important piece of information.

"Carter…" he prompted once he realised she had stopped speaking.

He watched as her eyes darted around the room and he wondered if the shine in them was tears.

_Surely not._

He looked up at her eyes once more and found her blue orbs staring straight back at him. He was taken aback slightly but he couldn't bring himself to look away from her. Her mouth twitched, her fingers moved to her hair and crawled through it.

"I know about your date."

Jack stuttered, even though he wasn't speaking. He felt the air leave his lungs and he let out and involuntary chuckle. He saw confused tears brim in her eyes and he regretted it instantly.

"Carter…" he moved towards her but she held her hand up, stopping him.

"No," she muttered and looked away from him. "I… I mean, what did I expect, you're my commanding officer and nothing… _nothing _could have happened but…" she faltered as her voice clogged with tears. She stared into his eyes once again. "_Why didn't you tell me?"_

Jack watched her for a few moments and began to walk closer to her again, his hands reaching up to grab on to her shoulders so she wouldn't move away from him.

"Carter…" he murmured and continued to watch her, unsure of what to say. He was going to kill every last one of the base gossips for making her think he'd gone on a date.

"No, sir… it's none of my business."

He stared at her hard, his frown one of exasperation.

"Carter!"

Then he did the only thing he could think to do, to reassure her that it was in fact her business.

He kissed her.


	16. Be My Escape

Sam ran and ran and ran. She didn't want to stop. She knew that she couldn't. Her legs moved fast, too fast almost for her body to keep up with. She tried to breathe a found that she couldn't but she liked it like that. If she couldn't breathe, she couldn't think and she definitely did not want to be thinking right at that moment.

Right then she only wanted to be escaping.

So she kept running, bypassing the elevators for the stairs, bounding up them two at a time not stopping even though her legs ached and her lungs burned. It didn't matter, she had to keep moving. She couldn't hear him behind her, couldn't be sure she'd actually heard him to begin with but she kept moving. She slowed only as she reached the top level, her black t-shirt soaked in sweat, her face no doubt burning red. She ignored the startled glances of the airmen around her, concentrating instead on getting the hell out of there. The guard waved her through, his face a mixture of bewilderment and fear but she paid it no heed and ran through.

Cold air hit her like wave and she was momentarily knocked off balance. She stopped running and pressed herself up against the cool wall. She took a few deep breaths, feeling her sides burn and took a few long strides around the corner, into a grassy sanctuary beside the parking lot.

She looked up to the heavens and felt the cold fat drops splash onto her face. It had been so long since she had felt the rain. She pressed her back against the wall, fighting against the sob that broke in her throat. Tears welled in her eyes, mixing with the water from the skies. She banged her head against the wall once, twice, three times but it did no good.

She could still feel it.

She pressed her hands against her face and slid down the wall, feeling the bricks scratching at her back as her T-shirt rode up. She gripped her hair in her hands, tugging at it, trying to let the pain take over so she didn't have to feel, didn't have to think about it.

He'd kissed.

She felt her breaths become ragged once again and she tried to control it, felt herself losing control of her autonomic systems. Panic settled in and she scrubbed at her lips with her fingers, wished for the droplets to wash away the burning singe there.

He wasn't supposed to kiss her.

"Oh God."

But he had. God, he had and it had felt so good, so right so…

"Oh God, oh God, oh God…"

She didn't know what to do. Her commanding officer had kissed her, on base, in front of security cameras and…

Her heart raced in her chest but she couldn't slow it down, didn't know how to settle the panic that was enveloping her.

This was instant dismissal material. What had he been thinking?

Had he been thinking at all?

She knew that when his lips touched hers for the first time without the excuse of alien technology that she had most definitely _not _been thinking about the consequences but only the paradoxical soft roughness of his lips.

Her sobs erupted from her gut, tightening there as choking out through the tears. Surely their first kiss wasn't supposed to end like this?

She jerked when she felt a hand on her shoulder and snapped her eyes to the intruder. She gasped and covered her face with her hand, knowing there was no way that he was there beside her.

"What are you doing here?"


	17. Guilt

Daniel watched from his vantage point as Sam sank to the sodden ground. He could see the tears stream down her face despite the rain. He could feel his heart tighten as he watched his best friend break down.

It didn't help that he was the cause.

He looked to the sky and tried to will the rain to change but it seemed that a power greater than himself – probably Oma – was making sure his attempts were thwarted. He wanted to appear to her, to comfort her but he didn't think he'd be of any use.

And besides, that just proved that his actions were in fact not for the greater good and Oma would certainly have something to say.

He groaned internally at the thought of her riddle-some lectures on not interfering in the lives of humans. He knew that they were big enough to make their own mistakes without him aiding them but he honestly thought he was doing the right thing.

Maybe he'd been wrong.

His eyes fixed on Sam and he pursed his lips. It wasn't supposed to be like this; she was supposed to be in Jack's arms still, throwing regulations to the wind. He knew that the two of them were stubborn but he thought that once one of them made the first move they'd see what they'd been missing for the past six years.

Added to that, he could not believe that Jack hadn't followed her. The Jack O'Neill he knew would have came after her, even if it was just to stare at her, or apologise…

_Then again, maybe not. _

That's what Daniel _wanted_ him to do so that didn't necessarily mean that that was what _Jack_ wanted to do.

He sighed. He didn't know how to fix this.

--

Jack stumbled backwards and hit the edge of his desk after she pulled away from him and bolted out the door. He stared in shock at the vacant doorway, unable to fathom what the _hell _had just happened.

Had he really just kissed Carter?

He stood transfixed for uncountable minutes, his hand travelling through his hair multiple times, making it stand on end. He didn't know what to do. Should he go after her? He didn't even know where she'd gone. Should he just pretend it never happened? Should he wait and see if she came back..?

There was one thing he was certain of and that was that he should not have kissed Carter in the first place.

Because really, that was just _asking _for trouble. He was surprised, now that he thought about it, that she hadn't kneed him in the groin and then punched him in the face. Hell, it was much less than he deserved.

Jack managed to move his legs towards the door but when he reached the threshold, his fingers gripped onto the door jamb and wouldn't let him pass. He sighed. He knew he should just leave her, at least on some level and that's why his body wouldn't let him leave.

He sighed and pivoted on his heel, moving back to his seat. He fell into it in a crumpled heap and thumped his head on the desk.

_What _had he been thinking?

But that's just it, he _hadn't _been thinking. At least not with his head.

"Are you all right?"

He groaned loudly into the table at the sound of the young Kelownan's voice and hoped that if he didn't raise his head, Jonas would suddenly disappear. Perhaps if he thought hard enough, Thor might pick up his thoughts and beam either of the two of them out of the room.

"We saw Sam running past out in the corridor and we decided to make sure you were both all right."

Jack sat up straight and pasted a smile onto his face.

"We?"

Jonas nodded. "Yeah, Teal'c went to check on Sam and he sent me down here to check on you."

Jack grunted before he started rummaging through his desk drawers. It was good to know where his friends' priorities lay. He was sure Teal'c would have come to him and sent Jonas to Sam. He wondered what the big man was playing at because if this was some kind of cruel joke then he didn't know what he'd do to him.

"Tell me, Jonas, what makes you think that if something was, perhaps, wrong, that I would tell you?" He hadn't meant to be so cruel and he knew from the look on the younger man's face that his words had stung. Jonas began to speak but Jack cut him off. "Look… Jonas, I'm sorry. But I have a lot of work to do." He motioned to the numerous folders on his desk that had probably been there for a few months and tried to look pained. Jonas nodded and turned to leave. "And Jonas?" He called out to him. He waited until the newest member of the team turned and met his eyes before smiling sincerely and nodding. "Thanks, anyway."

Jonas smiled slightly and nodded and finally left the office, closing the door behind him.


End file.
